Sony's Potential Blu-ray Successor Fits An Entire Season Of TV On One Disc

Sony just revealed the new laser they’re developing alongside Tohoku University. Regardless of the future of physical media, the specs are astounding to consider.

The blue-violet laser fires ultra fast bursts of very thin beams of light. The wavelength measures 405 nanometres, pulsing for durations of three picoseconds. (A nanometre, as most of you know, is one billionth of a metre. And a picosecond is one-trillionth of a second.) The light output will be over 100 times that of similar lasers.

Such a laser could read a next generation media with 20 times the capacity of Blu-ray, meaning you could fit up to 50 movies on a single disc. Many have already pointed out, that’s enough storage to fit an entire season of a TV show. But heck, that’s enough to fit many complete TV series if you think about it. [Examiner via Slashdot via CrunchGear]